Method and apparatus for retrieving metadata for managing video data

ABSTRACT

A method and an apparatus for retrieving information for managing video data involving link information associating metadata with the video data. A metadata indicator is used to indicate that metadata exists in a stream with the linking information. Link information also associates the metadata with location information to identify where additional information on the video data, which is described by the metadata, may be found. Using the method or apparatus, a single metadata unit is able to be associated with a plurality of video data units, or a plurality of metadata units are able to be associated with a single video data unit, in order to provide more information on the video data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a recording medium on which movingpicture data have been recorded together with script files includingadditional information related with the moving picture data.

The present invention further relates to a method of linking scriptfiles with moving picture data and relates to method and apparatus ofreproducing the moving picture data along with script files thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

An optical disk such as DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) being able to storedigital data is widely used in these days. A DVD can store not onlyaudio data but also moving picture data of long time. A DVD has tworecording partitions, one for storing digital data stream such as movingpicture data, and the other for storing navigation data which are usedto control reproduction of the stored digital data stream.

Thus, when a DVD having digital data stream thereon is placed into aconventional DVD player, the player reads out thereproduction-controlling data written in the navigation data partitionfirst and stores them in a memory equipped therein. Afterwards, the DVDplayer can select or search for an arbitrary section of moving picturedata using the reproduction-controlling data in the memory and playbackit.

A DVD may include additional information about moving picture datarecorded thereon. Namely, a DVD may include scene descriptive texts andintroduction of characters, etc. besides video and audio data. Suchadditional information may be informed to a viewer who wants moreinformation about moving pictures being presented.

However, how to link such additional information with moving picturedata and how to reproduce it along with moving picture data are not yetdecided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of linkingadditional information with each section of moving picture data and ofstoring the additional information.

It is another object of the present invention to provide method andapparatus of reproducing a recording medium including the additionalinformation as well as moving picture data thereon.

A recording medium in accordance with the present invention ischaracterized in that it has data comprising: moving picture data;additional information, written in the form of file, related with saidmoving picture data; and link information linking said at least one linkinformation file with said moving picture data.

A method of reproducing a recording medium containing moving picturedata and additional information thereof in accordance with the presentinvention is characterized in that it comprises the steps of:determining whether there is at least one file including additionalinformation for moving picture data on a recording medium; selecting apiece of link information linking said at least one link informationfile with at least one section of moving picture data based on thedetermination result, reading the selected piece of link informationfrom the recording medium, and storing the read piece of linkinformation into storage means other than the recording medium; andsearching for an additional information file linked with presentlyreproduced moving picture data with reference to the stored piece oflink information, and outputting contents of the found additionalinformation file together with moving picture data.

An apparatus of reproducing a recording medium containing moving picturedata and additional information thereof in accordance with the presentinvention is characterized in that it comprises: a data pickup readingdata recorded on a recording medium; a data storage for storing a pieceof link information, read by said data pickup, linking at least onefile, which includes additional information about moving picture datarecorded on the recording medium, with moving picture data; and acontroller searching for an additional information file linked withpresently reproduced moving picture data based on the piece of linkinformation stored in said data storage, and having contents of thefound additional information file presented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstandings of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiments ofthe invention, and together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the present invention.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a recording medium such as a DVD includingscript files containing additional information about moving picturedata;

FIGS. 2 and 3 show structures of Video Manager Information (VMGI) andVideo Title Set Information (VTSI), respectively, recorded in anavigation data zone of the recording medium of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows hierarchically-structured digital data stream recorded on arecording medium;

FIG. 5 shows a part of program chain information including 4-byte-longPGC Content field a ‘Script Flag’ is allocated in;

FIG. 6 shows the first embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows the second embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows the third embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data according to the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of a method specifying that a moving picturedata section has no related additional information;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus reproducing a recordingmedium including script files as well as moving picture data inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 shows an example of screen displaying both a scene by movingpicture data and scene descriptive text by a script file; and

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In order that the invention may be fully understood, a preferredembodiment thereof will now be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

Embodiments of a method linking additional information with movingpicture data in accordance with the present invention are describedfirst.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a recording medium such as a DVD includingscript files containing additional information about moving picturedata. The DVD of FIG. 1 is composed of three recording partitions, thefirst ‘Data Zone (DZ)’ for storing digital data stream such as movingpicture data, the second ‘Navigation Data Zone (NDZ)’ for storingnavigation data used to control reproduction of the stored digital datastream in the DZ, and the third ‘Script File Zone (SFZ)’ for storingscript files having additional and/or detailed information about movingpicture data.

In the SFZ, at least one link data file, which links script files withcorresponding sections of moving picture data, may be included.

The additional information in the script file may be written in theconventional HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) format, and a singlescript file is linked with at least one a predetermined-sized VOBU(Video OBject Unit) which is defined in the general DVD recordingstandard.

In addition, the link data file may be created for each PGCI (ProGramChain Information) which is also defined in the general DVD recordingstandard, and it is composed of link entries where each entry consistsof a script file identifier and an address of VOBUs associated with ascript file.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of Video Manager Information (VMGI) recordedin the NDZ. The VMGI includes Video Manager Menu VOBU Address Map‘VMGM_VOBU_ADMAP’ in which 4-byte-long start addresses of Video ManagerMenu VOBUs ‘VMGM_VOBU_Ads’ are written.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of Video Title Set Information (VTSI)recorded in the NDZ. The VTSI includes Video Title Set Video Object UnitAddress Map ‘VTS_VOBU_ADMAP’ in which 4-byte-long start addresses ofVideo Title Set VOBUs ‘VTS_VOBU_Ads’ are written.

FIG. 4 shows hierarchically-structured digital data stream recorded on aDVD. According to the hierarchical structure depicted in FIG. 4, singlePGCI which has been written in the PGCI table included in the VMGIand/or VTSI is associated with at least one VOB (Video OBject), calledprogram section or program chain, where a single VOB is composed of manyVOBUs containing actual data.

In the PGCI, 4-byte-long PGC Content field is included as shown in FIG.5. The PGC Content field consists of the following sub-fields:8-bit-long ‘Number of Cells’, 7-bit-long ‘Number of Programs’, 1-bit‘Script Flag’, and 16-bit-long ‘Reserved’.

The 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ indicates whether or not script files are linkedwith an associated program chain. If the ‘Script Flag’ is set it meansthat there are linked script files, and if reset it means that there arenot.

If there are linked script files, information for linking each scriptfile with a corresponding section of moving picture data belonging to aprogram chain is stored in a link data file.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the structure of a link data file. There maybe several link data files, as shown in FIG. 6, to match one file withone program chain when a plurality of program chains exist on a DVD.Therefore, a link data file may have a filename indicative of anassociated PGCI to distinguish what link data file is associated withwhat PGCI. For example, the first link data file associated with thePGCI ‘PGCI #1’ of the first program section is named to ‘PGC_(—)1.lk’,and, in the same manner, the second link data file associated with thePGCI ‘PGCI #2’ of the second program section is named to ‘PGC_(—)2.lk’where the extension ‘lk’ implies link data file.

In the example of a link data file depicted in FIG. 6, each link entrywritten in the link data file consists of an address of a VOBU withwhich contents of a linked script file are to be presented and arecording address of the linked script file. For example, if it issupposed that an address of a VOBU with which contents of a linkedscript file are to be presented is ‘10000’ and a recording address ofthe linked script file is ‘001001h’, a corresponding link entry has dataof ‘10000/001001h’ where the symbol ‘/’ is a delimiter. Other symbolsuch as a space may be used instead of ‘/’.

FIG. 7 shows another example of the structure of a link data file. Inthe example of FIG. 7, each link data file is associated with acorresponding program chain through a unique filename the same as theabove example. Namely, a link data file is named to ‘PGC_(—)1.lk’ forthe first PGCI, and to ‘PGC_(—)2.lk’ for the second PGCI. Each linkentry consists of an address of a VOBU with which contents of a linkedscript file are to be presented and a filename of the linked scriptfile. For example, if it is supposed that an address of a VOBU withwhich contents of a linked script file are to be presented is ‘10000’and a filename of the linked script file is ‘xxxx0sc’, a correspondinglink entry has data of ‘10000/xxxx0.sc’ where the symbol ‘/’ is adelimiter.

When a DVD including the above-explained script files and at least onelink data file thereon is placed into a DVD player being able to the DVDand a program chain to reproduce is selected at the same time from auser, the DVD player checks the 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ written in the PGCContent field ‘PGC_CNT’ in PGCI of the selected program chain, first. Ifthe ‘Script Flag’ is 1, the DVD player considers that script filesassociated with the selected program chain have been written in the SFZ,reads a data link file associated with the selected program chain fromthe SFZ, and stores the read data link file in a memory. In thesesuccessive operations, all script files in the SFZ may be read out andthen stored in the memory along with the link data file.

Afterwards, the selected program chain is reproduced. If script displaymode is activated, the DVD player examines all link entries in the linkdata file, stored in the memory, associated with the program chain beingpresented in order to search for an address which is equal to a startaddress of a VOBU being reproduced. If the same address is found in thelink entries, the DVD player obtains a recording address or a filenameof a script file combined with the found address through a delimiter‘/’, and decodes data contained in the identified script file by theobtained recording address or filename while reading the script filefrom the memory or the DVD. Through these operations, a viewer is ableto view additional information related with the presented movingpictures at the same time while watching the moving pictures.

In the above embodiment, an additional link data file is necessary tolink script files with moving picture data. However, script files can belinked directly with moving picture data without the above-explainedlink data file.

FIG. 8 is another embodiment of a method linking script files withmoving picture data in accordance with the present invention. In theembodiment of FIG. 8, every script file has filename including anaddress of a VOBU to be presented along with the script file. Forexample, if it is supposed that a script file is to be presented withthe fifth VOBU ‘VOBU #5’ of which start address is ‘10000’ , the scriptfile includes a string of ‘10000.sc’ in its filename where the ‘sc’means script file. In other words, a start address of a VOBU to bepresented with additional information included in a script file must beused as a filename (extension excluded) of the script file, as shown inFIG. 8.

Therefore, a DVD player reads all script files written in the SFZ of aDVD and knows each start address of a VOBU to be presented with a scriptfile based on each filename before starting reproduction. Afterwards, ifthere is a filename matched with an address of a VOBU being presentednow, the DVD player reads data in a script file having the matchedfilename and decodes out them. Through these operations, a viewer canview additional information related with the presented moving picturesat the same time while watching the moving pictures.

Entire script files may be retrieved from a DVD and then stored in amemory at an initial disk loading process when a DVD is placed.Otherwise, linked script files are retrieved from a DVD and then decodedsequentially when a viewer activates script display mode. If a memoryhas enough storage capacity, it is preferable to respond to user'sscript display request after storing all script files in the memory.

An arbitrary section of moving picture data, namely several VOBUs mayhave no additional information although moving picture data haveadditional information overall. For such a section, a script file ofwhich filename includes a start address of the section is still created,however, the script file has only null data. FIG. 9 shows this methodschematically.

In the example of FIG. 9 illustrating a case that an arbitrary sectionof moving picture data is not supplied with additional information, asection from the L-th ‘VOBU WOBU #L’ to the (m−1)-th ‘WOBU #m−1’ has noadditional information, so that a script file of which filename is‘30000’, same with the address of the L-th VOBU, has null data of fixedsize.

Therefore, when the L-th VOBU is encountered while reproducing themoving picture data, the DVD player reads, contents written in thescript file ‘30000.sc’ and it deletes previously-outputted contents ofthe script file ‘21000.sc’ in a viewing screen because the contents ofthe file ‘30000.sc’ are all null. As a result, while a section of movingpicture data not supplied with additional information is beingreproduced, previous additional information not related with currentsection disappears in a screen.

Instead of writing null data in a script file, a special code, e.g., ‘-’is added to the filename of a script file to indicate that a linkedsection has no additional information. For example, in the example ofFIG. 9, the script file of which filename is same with the address ofthe L-th VOBU ‘VOBU #L’ is named to ‘-30000.sc’. Therefore, if a scriptfile of which filename includes the code ‘-’ is linked with currentVOBU, a previously-presented script file is removed in a screenimmediately without reading data in the script file.

An embodiment of method and apparatus of reproducing a recording mediumincluding script files linked with moving picture data as explainedabove is now described in detail.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus reproducing a recordingmedium including script files as well as moving picture data inaccordance with the present invention. The reproducing apparatus of FIG.10 comprises an optical pickup 11 detecting signals recorded on a DVD 10on which script files are also written; a reproduction processing unit12 processing the detected signals by the pickup 11 to restore them tovideo, audio, and/or text data; a spindle motor 17 rotating the DVD 10;a sled motor 16 moving the pickup 11 inward and outward on the DVD 10; aservo unit 15 conducting servo operations for the spindle motor 17, thesled motor 16, and an objective lens of the pickup 11; a controllingunit 13 controlling all elements to reproduce the DVD 10; and a memory14 for temporarily storing data produced while reproducing the DVD 10and script files.

The reproduction processing unit 12 may be composed of a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 12 a restoring the detected RF signals to digital dataafter converting the RF signals to binary signals, a decoder 12 bdecoding compressed digital data restored by the digital signalprocessor 12 a, and the like. The controlling unit 13 may be composed ofa file system 13 a searching for and reading a link data file or ascript file stored in the memory 14 or recorded on the DVD 10, amicroprocessor 13 b controlling reproduction of recorded data and scriptfiles in connection with the file system 13 a, and so on. A reproductionoperation, conducted under the control of the controlling unit 13, ofboth moving picture data and related additional information in scriptfiles is performed as follows.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

The procedures depicted in FIG. 11 are on the assumption that the DVD 10includes a link data file in the SFZ as the embodiments of FIGS. 7 and8. When the DVD 10 is placed exactly (S10), the controlling unit 13reads navigation data for controlling reproduction of the DVD 10 fromthe NDZ and stores them in the memory 14, first (S11). There are theVMGI and the VTSI containing PGCI in the navigation data stored in thememory 14.

Because there may be several program chains on the DVD 10, thecontrolling unit 13 waits until a program chain is chosen to bereproduced by a user. If a program chain is selected, the controllingunit 13 checks 1-bit ‘Script Flag’ allocated in the PGC Content field‘PGC_CNT’ written in PGCI associated with the chosen program chain(S12). If the value of ‘Script Flag’ is 0, the controlling unit 13 knowsthat there is no additional information associated with the chosenprogram chain, and conducts a general DVD reproducing operation (S13).

If the values of ‘Script Flag’ is 1, the controlling unit 13 considersthat there is at least one stored script file, linked with the selectedprogram chain, in the SFZ of the DVD 10, and it searches the SFZ of theDVD 10 for a link data file having filename associated with the PGCI ofthe chosen program chain. If found, the controlling unit 13 determinesthat the chosen program chain has linked script files, otherwise, itdetermines that the chosen program chain does not.

If it is determined that there is additional information related withthe program chain, the controlling unit 13 reads out the found data linkfile from the SFZ (S14) and stores it in the memory 14. Specially, ifstorage of the memory 14 is large enough to store many script files, thecontrolling unit 13 analyzes all link entries of the stored link datafile, reads every script file identified by address or filename writtenin each link entry, and stores the read script files in the memory 14,before starting to reproduce moving picture data belonging to the chosenprogram chain (S15).

Afterwards, the controlling unit 13 conducts reproducing operation ofthe selected program chain (S16). If current reproducing mode is scriptdisplay one or if script display mode is requested from a user duringreproduction of moving picture data (S17), the controlling unit 13receives an address of a VOBU being reproduced now from the reproductionprocessing unit 12 or knows the address from the already-stored VTSI inthe memory 14 (S18), and it searches the link data file stored in thememory 14 for a link entry of which VOBU address member is equal to thereceived or known address (S19). If the link entry is not found, thecontrolling unit 13 searches for a link entry of which VOBU addressmember is closest to and smaller than the received or known address(S19). If a link entry is found from the former or the latter searchoperation, the controlling unit 13 identifies a recording address or afilename of a script file from the other member, delimited by ‘/’, ofthe found link entry, and searches the DVD 10 or the memory 14 for ascript file identified by the address or filename through the filesystem 13 a (S20).

If an associated script file is found, its contents are transmitted tothe reproduction processing unit 12 which decodes the received contentsin accordance with compressing way of the contents, if compressed, andoutputs them along with video and audio data decoded from reproducedmoving picture data (S21). Owing to this dual decoding and outputtingoperation, a scene by moving picture data and scene descriptive text bya script file are displayed together in a single screen as shown in FIG.12.

In the meantime, if the found script file contains null data or has aspecial code such as ‘-’ indicative of no linked additional informationin its filename as explained referring to FIG. 9, the controlling unit13 supplies the reproduction processing unit 12 with a signal indicativeof no information to command the reproduction processing unit 12 toblank a present script window. Consequently, continuous display ofprevious script file is prevented.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method reproducing arecording medium including script files as well as moving picture datain accordance with the present invention.

The procedures depicted in FIG. 13 are on the assumption that the DVD 10includes no link data file as the embodiment of FIG. 9.

The procedures of the embodiment of FIG. 13 are totally same with thoseof FIG. 11 except the following distinctive steps. In the embodiment ofFIG. 13, if it is determined that a selected program chain hasadditional information (S32), the address range of the selected programchain composed of at least one VOB is detected first and script filesnamed with address belonging to the detected address range are all readfrom the SFZ of the DVD 10 into the memory 14 (S34).

Afterwards, if in script display mode, the controlling unit 13 receivesan address of a VOBU being currently reproduced from the reproductionprocessing unit 12 or knows the address from the already-stored VTSI inthe memory 14 (S38), and it searches the memory 14 for a script filenamed with the received or known address or with an address closest toand smaller than the received or known address (S39). If found, thecontrolling unit 13 transmits contents of the found script file to thereproduction processing unit 12 to be presented with reproduced movingpictures in a screen.

If the found script file contains only null data or has a special codeindicative of no linked additional information in its filename, thecontrolling unit 13 supplies the reproduction processing unit 12 with asignal indicative of no information to blank a present script window asthe former embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 12, the moving pictures and its related additionalinformation may be displayed together through a conventional Web browserused for surfing Internet. Incase of using Web browser, the scriptwindow for additional information can be scrolled to a previous or anext scene descriptive information by commands or clicks from a viewer.In addition, the descriptive data written in a script file may be madeout in the form of hyper-text in order that a viewer might obtain withease more detailed information related with apart of text, e.g., a wordor a phrase by simply clicking it.

The above-explained method of linking additional information with eachsection of moving picture data and method and apparatus of reproducing arecording medium including the additional information as well as movingpicture data make it possible for a viewer to obtain with easeadditional and/or detailed information related to moving picture datareproduced from a recording medium such as a DVD.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it isintended that the present invention cover the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1-16. (canceled)
 17. A method of providing information for managingreproduction of video data, comprising: providing management informationfor associating metadata with the video data, wherein the managementinformation includes a metadata indicator for indicating whether themetadata exists in a stream including at least a portion of themanagement information, the metadata being additional informationdescribing the video data, wherein the metadata corresponds to one of aplurality of predetermined formats, wherein the metadata indicatorindicates that the metadata associated with the video data exists in thestream when the metadata indicator has a first metadata indicator value,wherein the metadata indicator indicates that the metadata associatedwith the video data does not exist in the stream when the metadataindicator has a second metadata indicator value, and wherein themetadata indicator is a flag.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein themanagement information further includes linking information forassociating the metadata with the video data, and wherein the linkinginformation is used for identifying the metadata.
 19. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the metadata comprises one or more metadata units, andthe metadata unit is decoded at a specific instant in a time.
 20. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the metadata is provided separately from thevideo data.
 21. An apparatus for providing information for managingreproduction of video data, comprising: a controller configured to,provide management information for associating metadata with the videodata, wherein the management information includes a metadata indicatorfor indicating whether the metadata exists in a stream including atleast a portion of the management information, the metadata beingadditional information describing the video data, wherein the metadatacorresponds to one of a plurality of predetermined formats, wherein themetadata indicator indicates that the metadata associated with the videodata exists in the stream when the metadata indicator has a firstmetadata indicator value, wherein the metadata indicator indicates thatthe metadata associated with the video data does not exist in the streamwhen the metadata indicator has a second metadata indicator value, andwherein the metadata indicator is a flag.
 22. The apparatus of claim 21,wherein the management information further includes linking informationfor associating the metadata with the video data, and wherein thelinking information is used for identifying the metadata.
 23. Theapparatus of claim 21, wherein the metadata comprises one or moremetadata units, wherein the metadata unit is decoded at a specificinstant in a time.
 24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the metadatais provided separately from the video data.